Prologue of The Fall of the Turtles
by Mockingbird84
Summary: The Turtles rescue Karai from the Shredder after he discovers she has been giving them information about his operations. This story starts off when the Turtles and Karai are around 22.


"We got her out. We just made our way to the roof but we're surrounded by foot bots!" Donnie heard Leonardo yell into the head piece.

"Come on Raph, we gotta go!" Donnie yelled at him as the heat from the flames seared his skin.

Raphael broke a window with his bare hands to escape the burning building. With Donnie behind him they made their way to the roof using the scaffolding. From the roof they were on, Donnie and Raph saw where Leo, Mikey and Karai were fighting foot bots several rooftops away. There must have been a hundred of them. They were about to jump to the next roof top when foot bots started to emerge from buildings surrounding them, jumping onto the roof of the T.C.R.I building.

"Fuck!" Raph yelled

"Leo, we got company. It's going to take longer than we thought." Donnie said into his ear piece.

Leo, Mikey and Karai were surrounded. Mikey, used his kusarigama to stab right through the chest of one bot while at the same time kicking another right over the roof. He then yanked his kusarigama out and quickly rammed it through the head of another.

Leo was slicing through as many bots as possible along with Karai.

The foot suddenly stopped fighting them and made a path in their crowd. Shredder then appeared and made his way through the path to stand right in front of them.

"I'm giving you another chance, Karai. If you come back and rid yourself of the filth that you have allied yourself with, I will forgive your transgressions." The Shredder said

Karai said nothing but turned, glared and put up her middle finger. Leo and Mikey both glanced at each other in a surprised shock.

"So be it!" he said as the Shredder unsheathed a katana from his side.

Leo, Mikey and Karai all poised themselves to strike. They had decided at the liar, that any time they would come into contact with the Shredder again, that it would be to kill him. Things had changed since they were younger. They tried to keep a no killing policy, but some of their enemies were just too dangerous to let live.

Leo charged first, coming at the Shredder trying to slice his stomach. Which Oroku easily blocked and Leo and the Shredder stood there shaking as their katana braced against each other. He had been this close to the Shredder before, but only a few times. He could feel his chilling, warm breath cross his face and see a look of hate and fury in his eyes. Although a ninja is supposed to have a cold demure, he wondered if he showed the same look in his own eyes.

Mikey jumped to the side but the Shredder deflected Mikey's kusarigama that was aimed at his rib. The Shredder did a back flip distancing himself from the two Turtles. "Bots…." Ordered the Shredder. The bots surrounded them and came in for the kill.

Donnie, held his bo out and Raph instantly knew what he was getting at. He, his brothers and April all had worked and trained together for so long, that words were not needed often during battle. All it usually took was an eye brow shift, a frown or a smirk and reading the nuances in all of their body language. Raph, then used Donnie's bo to jump into the air and flip, using his sai to impale a bot in the eye coming at Donnie from behind.

Donnie converted his bo into a naginata and managed to cut off one of the bots limbs and then stab it in the eye, while Raph stabbed another through the neck with his sai. "It's a good thing that foot bots were not real people, or it might be like a scene from one of those horror movies that Mikey likes so damn much." Raph exclaimed

Just then, Raph felt the roof beneath his feet rumbled and shake, as it collapsed, taking him and twenty bots with him.

"Raph!", Donnie screamed.

As he lost his footing, falling backwards through the roof, Raph felt something hit the back of his head and everything went black.

(Back to Mikey, Leo and Karai)

Three bots surrounded Mikey and a blade grazed against his stomach. Leo got distracted for a split second seeing his brother's blood, and a bot hit him square in the jaw, while another kicked his knee in causing him to fall on his back while five other bots started to surround him. Karai then came and sliced one of their heads off and anther she stabbed in the back. Leo used his katana to stab one in the chest, causing it to fall on top of him while he was still on the ground.

"Leo! Raph just fell through the roof over here! I am going to try and get to him but he hasn't responded when I called. He may be knocked out and I might need some help getting him out. I don't know. I've also had a shit ton of foot bots that have been attacking me and I don't' know how long it will be until I can get to him."

" _Shit!_ " Leo thought.

Donnie still was fighting foot bots on the portion of roof that hadn't caved in when one impaled him through his left shoulder with a scythe forcing him to use his subdominant arm; but he still managed to take the rest of the bots down. Splinter taught them to be ambidextrous. As he walked to the opening in the roof there was a lone foot bot that was still half alive crawling around on the roof like a walker from the Walking Dead. Donnie used his naginata to stab it in the head and put it out for good.

He assessed the situation, of how to get down to his brother. "I'm going to need help getting Raph down. My shoulder just got injured and I don't know what his injuries consist of."

Donnie used a huge metal beam that was at angling from the roof to guide himself to the top floor of the T.C.R.I. building. He started to sift through the debri and found Raphael pinned underneath another big metal beam, clearly unconscious. Donnie tried to put his hands underneath the beam and use all of his strength to lift it. His fingers ached and his shoulder strained with the pressure but he only managed to move the beam a few inches at a time. Making little progress, he hoped that someone would come help him soon. He wasn't sure if he could lift the beam alone, let alone with an injured shoulder.

Leo and Karai managed to disengage more bots, while Mikey used his nunchucks to hit two at the same time in the head.

The Shredder retreated, but that was the least of their worries. He and Karai ran over to Mikey, jumping over foot bots laying all over the roof. "How bad is it?" Leo asked Mikey

"Tis but a flesh wound." Mikey replied quoting Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

"Okay. I've got to go and help Donnie with Raph. It sounds like he may be badly injured. Can you two get to the van outside of this building and get to the T.C.R.I. building?"

"Yeah. I think I can."

"April to Leo!" Leo heard over his head piece.

"This is Leo."

"Leatherhead already went to help Raph and Mikey. You guys just get your asses out of there!"

"Roger that!" Leo said.

Donnie struggled and made a little progress wiggling the beam out. It might not be long until both he and Raph both suffered from smoke inhalation.

Finally, he saw Leatherhead climb through a window and a flood of relief went through him. Leatherhead was extremely strong and would probably make more progress than he would with the beam.

"I'll lift, and you pull Raph out." Leatherhead shouted.

Donnie nodded and Leatherhead lifted the beam while Donnie slid Raph out from under it. Leatherhead then threw Raph over his shoulder. "Come on!" Donnie screamed, "Let's get out of here!"

When Leo, Mikey and Karai finally got to the van, April was waiting. She had the sliding door open for them to pile in right away. Noticing that Leo was limping, leaning over Mikey's shoulder and also seeing the blood coming from Mikey's stomach she said, "Which one of you is the most injured."

"Leo, definitely!" Mikey said, "This cut just barely sliced my shell."

"Okay, can you drive then while I get to Leo's leg."

"No prob!"

Handing the keys to Mikey she said, "Leo get in the back and Karai you can sit in the front."

Leo's mind was still racing from the adrenaline and his mind was on Raph and Donnie's injuries as April wrapped Leo's knee with an ace bandage. What Donnie described, was pretty bad. But, at least they were successful in getting Kari out. Karai…he almost forgot about her.

She turned and glanced in the back seat and caught Leo's blue eyes. "Are you alright?" Leo asked as he noticed that there was a stream of blood coming from a fat, busted lip

"I'm fine. I've had worse." Karai replied, which was so true and on some level, Leo must have known as well. She had suffered worse during training with her, fa…with the Shredder, as her mind corrected her. As a matter of fact, the pain in her back was worse than what she had suffered that day. She couldn't even sit back in the seat. When the Shredder had captured her after finding out that she had been giving information to the Hamato clan, he had Fishface and Razhar give her lashes with a whip in addition to making her his prisoner. This was all so surreal to her, being with the Hamato's. It seemed like a dream; an illusion even.

As they finally pulled up to the other building, they saw Donnie and Leatherhead with Raph over Leatherhead's shoulders.

They opened up the van and Leatherhead put Raph on the stretcher as they piled in after him and they quickly drove away.

"How is he?" April asked Donnie

"I don't know. I think he might have suffered from some smoke inhalation. He definitely has a concussion." Donnie stated

"She grabbed a flashlight and opened his eyes and shined them in them. "Definitely has a concussion.", she stated as she saw that his pupils weren't dilating. "How long was he out?"

She then noticed his knuckles and got out some gauze and hydrogen peroxide out of the medical kit.

"Approximately 15 minutes 42 seconds.", Donnie stated.

"Leo, here can you hold this over his mouth?" April handed Leo an oxygen mask with a tank.

"And how are you?" She asked as she turned to examine Donnie's shoulder. She had learned some things about patching the guys up after seven years of working with them. Suturing, pulling bullets out of wounds, and various other medical training had become second nature to her. Donnie and her had become quite the team in that respect.

"It's really," Donnie started to say, but started coughing…." not that bad." (cough) " It's nothing." He stated "I just got stabbed by a scythe that's all."

April smirked…"And got some smoke inhalation too!" she said as she put the stethoscope to his chest. "Breath" She ordered for which he took a deep labored breath. "Looks like you might need to get some oxygen too." She then took some supplies out of the medical kit. She took the hydrogen peroxide and squirted it directly into his wound.

Donnie winced and she blew on it. He immediately felt his cheeks get hot as he hoped beyond a hope that she did not see his goose pimples form on his skin. She then took out a trauma pad and gauze. "Can you lift your arm?"

He didn't say anything but obliged and scrunched up his face as he winced in pain to lift it. She cleaned the wound with some gauze, then applied pressure to the wound using a trauma pad and medical taped it there to finally wrap his shoulder in a sling. " _The pain is worth it he thought_.", as he felt her ghost her fingers across his skin and he let out a breath that he didn't know he was holding. But pain tugged at his heard with the sparkle that graced her ring finger on her left hand. Especially since the news was so new. It had been just a month ago that Casey and April had announced their engagement.

"It will have to be stitched up, but that will be as good as I can get until we get back to the lair." April stated.

Donnie felt guilty. While he was enjoying the affections of April, but he also felt resentment and he thought of himself as selfish for feeling that way. He was certain that he could never give April what she deserved; nights on the town, trips to the Bahamas, a marriage, children….a normal life. Although, he was pretty sure that Casey couldn't either. No man could give April what she deserved because she deserved the best.

However, he would take what affections she would spare for him and live in those moments. Many times when he was with her, he forgot about the rest of the world. He didn't expect this to be the last time that the fire haired, woman with the spirit to match had done such a thing to him.

They arrived at the lair and Leatherhead got Raph on the examining table that Donnie's lab.

"Does he have any injuries other than the few bruises that I see?" April asked Donnie

"No, I don't think so. I will check him over."

"No, no, no, no, no..", April said, "You will sit here. You are the patient this time and I'm the doctor. I've gotta stitch up that wound."

She took out the suture kit that Donnie had set up and some gloves.

"Sensei… Sensei!" Leo yelled He didn't see him in the den and when he hobbled into their makeshift kitchen he didn't see him there either. He thought it was odd that their father hadn't come to greet them after their battle.

"Mikey have you seen Sensei?"

"Ugh… no….I was wondering where he was myself."

Leo started to get worried. Splinter rarely left the lair unless in dire circumstances and much less so when he knew that they were coming back from an intense battle. Especially since he was the fighting of a battle that none of them could help him with; the graying fur, the achy joints, and less of a spark of energy that Leo noticed more than the others, was starting to settle into him.

They entered the dojo and Leonardo saw it and his stomach flipped. Pinned to the picture of Miwa and Teng Shen was a folded letter with the signature wax seal on it of the Foot. Leo dashed to it as fast as he could with his injured knee, and opened it.

In Japanese it said, "You took one of ours, we take one of yours." Leo began to feel weak and collapsed straight down on the mat with his head between his legs. Karai came in and saw him. All Leo did was just hold the letter with two fingers up as he sat there collapsed on the ground just staring at the mat. He didn't even look at her.

When she read the note, she gasped and a flood of guilt spread through her. "This…this is all my fault…"

"Please don't tell me how they found our lair." Leo said as he leaned on the wall to try and stand.

"Honestly, I don't know, but you…" She paused for a brief moment. "You should have just left me! If you hadn't have..." She sat next to Leo and pitched her voice down. "I'm sorry. I just…" She sighed.

She knew that it was too good to be true. Whatever it was between her and the Hamato clan…between her and Leo, would never come to be peaceful. Her history was too intertwined with the Foot; with the Shredder; with the Kraang. She felt that her soul would never be free of the Shredder and the horrors that he made into her life.

"I've got to go." She said and got up and headed for the door.

"I'll come with you!" Leo said

"You're in no condition..."

He cut her off, "We can't just stay here not when they have my…our father…." He corrected himself and let the sentence trail off.

"What's going on, you find Splinter yet?" April had entered.

Kari just held up the opened letter and looked at April. April gasped and put her hands over her face realizing what she was implying without having read the letter. She immediately turned around and headed out of the dojo….

"Donnie!" She screamed

"Where's Splinter!" Mikey came barging in running into April and he saw the look on her face that said was utter terror.

"Noooo… God no…." Mikey said.

"Okay, we need to all get together and come up with a plan. April, gather everybody to meet in here."

She just nodded and went back out but Donnie came rushing in with the sling over his shoulder. "They have Splinter." She said as the look of terror painted itself on her face.

Donnie's eyes got real big and he just grabbed April and took her in his embrace.

"Okay, okay…who do we got?" Leo started to name "Mikey you're okay, right? I can go…"

"No, Leo, you can barely walk." Donnie pointed out.

"Karai, April…" Leo went on, ignoring his purple masked brother.

"I can call Casey." April offered

"Casey, Leatherhead, Karai…" He said frantically. "We can do this. We can get him out of there."

Karai felt like there was no reasoning with Leo in his panicked state, so she played along.

"Yeah." She said to him and he looked at her with a fondness in his eyes that she yearned for but made the sadness twist inside her soul. Her life, this sadness was a tornado that tore up everything in its path and would never subside. It was in that moment that Leonardo had made his decision and she had made up hers.

"Do you have any idea where they might be holding them prisoner?" Leo asked Karai

Kari thought about lying and telling him another place to throw him off, in order to ensure his safety being held. But she thought better of it realizing that she would need their help. "They're probably holding him at the warehouse on the East side." She replied.

"Then that is where we will check first." Leo stated

"It's probably a trap." Kari stated

"I know, but it's not like we have much choice." Leo said,

"Let me at least get you some ice for your knee before we go." Kari stated. She then walked past Donnie holding April in his arms and Mikey standing in the door way.

Mikey walked over to his brother and kneeled on the mat where he was sitting putting his hand on his shoulder. "We'll, get him back. We'll get him out." he assured his brother.

Karai had come back with an ice pack and sat in front of Leo. Mikey then looked at the pair and said, "I'm just going to go…check on Raph. Yeah. That's it."

April while still in Donnie's embrace with his good arm said, "I've gotta call Casey.", as she backed away and looked up into Donnie's, brown, eyes drenched in worry. He understood that with Raph, Leo and himelf injured that they would need all the help they could get. But, it still hurt that she would go to Casey to dismiss him many times. He wished it didn't have to be that way.

She stepped out of the dojo and found his number in her caller ID.  
"Hey Red!" He answered, "How ya doin!" He sounded a little too, happy considering the circumstances. April also heard loud commotion going on in the background.

"Casey, hey where are you? Wha…What are you doing?"

"Some of my boys wanted to take me out to the Way Station. You know celebrate..." he broke off and April heard him, scream out, "Yeah, I'll take another shot of Jameson."

"Are you drunk?"

"What? Me, noooooo…. Well may be a little sugar tits."

" _Sugar Tits?"_ April thought as she felt her rage start to inflame.

"What's up? You with the guys? Tell, em I said hi." He said a little too loud into the mouth piece and April had to back it up off her ear. She was so angry she pressed "End" to hang up on him.

Donnie came up behind her. "Did you get a-hold of him?" he asked.

"Fuck him!", April said back. Donnie's eyes got big and he stepped back to get out of her way. He was well aware of April's temper and had a deep respect for it.

This was not the first time Casey had gotten drunk at the most inopportune moment. Since Casey had gotten into semi-professional hockey league, she felt that the team's influence was taking it's toll on him. It didn't help that he came from a family with a history of alcoholism. She could also see that now, he was dragging Raphael down with him into his mess.

About an hour later, everyone was gathered in the den. Leatherhead stood next to Mikey, while Donnie sat next to April on the couch and Karai stood next to Leonardo.

"First off, I think a solid night's rest would do us good." Karai said

"No…we should go tonight. What if they…" Leo tried to argue.

"Leo." he said as he coughed, "We are all exhausted, and injured. If we go in there, in our current state, it could end up being worse for us…for Sensei." Donnie reasoned.

"Yes, Leo. I have to agree with Karai." April went on.

"Dude, I'm spent! And I wasn't even hurt as bad as you or Donnie were. If we go in there tonight, we'll get sloppy…let our emotions get the best of us." Mikey added.

Leo sighed, and pinched the area between his eyes. "Do you think they will keep him alive for that long, Karai?"

"If I know the Shredder's style is to torture Hamato Yoshi in the best way possible. By his definition that would be to destroy his family in front of him before he actually kills him." She stated. " Trust me he'll will wait for you."

"I just worry about what they will do to him in the mean time." Leo stated.

"We all are, Leo." April said, " He…is like a second father to me too. He was a father to me when mine could not be there."

Of course, April was referring to the time when her father had gotten turned into a bat by the Kraang. Not to mention, the years of training that she had received from him, although it seemed Leo was taking over the training more and more now-a-days.

"Okay." Leo finally obliged. "We leave at nine pm tomorrow night."

"Do you guys think I could stay here tonight? I think I need to be here in support of you guys.", which was half the truth, the other part of the truth was that she was infuriated at Casey and couldn't stand to go home and look at his face.

"April, you know you don't have to ask, right." Donnie said

"I know, but I also wish to be respectful, and I know that there is another person to accommodate."

They hadn't even gotten to the point of addressing the sleeping arrangements for Karai.

"I can sleep on the couch, though. You can have my bed that they set up for me here." April told Karai

"Ohhh…I wouldn't want to intrude. I can sleep on the couch."

"No, actually since you are probably going to stay here, may be you should just take over that room." April suggested.

"Well, for now, I can sleep on the couch. I hate to kick you out."

"May be I could sleep on the cot, and you could take my bed, April." Donnie counter offered, "Then Karai could still sleep in your room." He suggested out of chivalry but he also loved when she slept in his bed because when he came back to it, it always smelled like her; a smell of lavender and vanilla, a scent that he came to associate with her.

"Okay, that seems to be a happy medium." April said.

Karai couldn't argue. Although, she felt that her stay there was going to be a lot shorter than what they all anticipated.

Karai lay in what used to be April's bed, on her stomach. But she couldn't sleep. Partially because of the pain of her back, partially because of the impending mission of the next day. She then sat up, and put her feet on the cold hard cement. She left the room, and tip toed down the hall to find herself before the door to Leonardo's room. Her heart started to leap as she tentatively reached her hand out for the handle and pressed it. To her surprise, it was unlocked.

She slipped through the crack between the door and the frame, careful not to open it to the full extent in order to keep the least amount of light from entering the room possible and closed the door behind her. As her eyes adjusted to the dark, she put her hands in front of her, trying to feel her way through the dark room, and carefully made her way forward. Her hip hit something. Putting her hands down to feel stiff back of fabric; an office chair. She carefully made her way around it and as her eyes adjusted, realized she was mere inches from the bed. She got down on her knees, and reached her hands out to touch the figure beneath the blanket.

Before she knew it, she heard a smack as a three fingered green hand grabbed her wrist. Her already elevated heart rate started to beat even faster. She felt that it might pound right through her chest. She had snuck into many places before; banks; hotel rooms; many, many of her father's enemy's lairs; but she was never so nervous as she was right there in front of Hamato Leonardo at that moment.

"What are you doing in here?" he asked

"I was…I…." He reached out, with the hand that wasn't grabbing her wrist and crossed his body to turn on the lamp that was on his desk right next to his bed.

She saw that he didn't have his mask or elbow pads on and then saw that they lay folded up on his desk.

She was struggling for something to say and finally came up with, "I just couldn't sleep. I'm….sorry, I..."

This wasn't untrue, but it wasn't the entire truth either. He let go of her wrist and she brought it back to herself her to hold it close between breasts. She grabbed the part of her wrist where he had grabbed her.

"No, no. it's okay…" he said as he sat up . "I wasn't actually sleeping either."

He took in her appearance with her black slightly messy hair; her little shorts and a t-shirt that April had lent her. He could smell her scent, as she was just a mere foot and a half to two feet away from him, sitting with her legs folded underneath her.

In that moment she almost lost her resolve in doing what she came to do. But then in the last second, she gathered up all her courage to finish the mission because in their world, there was no guarantees. So without warning she sat up and crashed her lips into his.

Leo's eyes widened in a great shock. He lost all logical thought from his mind for a brief moment and even almost forgot that his father was missing.

He had imagined this, many times. If it happened, he thought that it might not happen for a long while. Her lips were chapped and her vanilla scent permeated his sinuses. He then closed his eyes. She placed her hands on his sculpted biceps and cocked her head to the side. He felt her teeth graze against his lower lip, and a slight brush of her tongue. He wasn't sure what to do with his hands but placed them on her arms, gliding them down. She then broke the kiss to straddle her legs around him.

He finally got his brain into gear and tasted her lip with his tongue and moved his hands to the small of her back and pulled her closer.

She immediately pulled away with a hiss through her teeth and winced.

"What's wrong?" He asked,

"Nothing, it's just…my back."

He furrowed his brow in confusion and she got off his lap and turned around to pull her shirt up enough to see her back. He gasped.

There were so many deep gashes, he couldn't count them. Her entire back was a map of oozing and scabbing that lead to no future but told a history of the pain she had endured while under the sovereignty of the Shredder.

"Oh my god! Why didn't you… We should go clean this up." She wasn't used to being doted over. Living with the Shredder, one didn't complain. If you did you were weak and probably would just endure more of a punishment. Showing weakness to your loved ones was the same as showing weakness to your enemy, because they could be your enemy.

He then got up and gently grabbed her hand to pull, hobbling her in the direction of Donnie's lab.

She had not been in the lab yet. There was a florescent lighting, several computer monitors and computer towers, and many various contraptions that looked like they weren't finished.

"Please sit. Actually, if you could lay down, on your stomach." He requested of her on the table set up for mending themselves after all the wounds they had endured over the years. He went to some drawers and started taking out gauze, antiseptic ointment, peroxide, a sewing needle and a thread of some sort.

"Can you…um…lift up your shirt?" He made as a second request. "This is going to hurt." He warned as he soaked the gauze in ointment and then hovered it right above the wounds. As soon as he pressed the gauze to her back, she bit her lip, sucked in some air and shut her eyes in pain as she gripped the side of the table.

"I would give you an anesthetic. But, we rarely get any of that. I'm…sorry." He said in true regret.

"It's okay, she replied. "I'm used to enduring pain."

He knew this and his heart ached at that fact. When he got to the part where he had to sew up the wounds, he himself winced. She gripped the table even harder, sweat started to form on her brow and her breathing labored even more intensely than before.

"You're doing great, almost done." He said in encouragement both for himself and for Karai. He then went to the sink, Donnie had set up in there and pulled a glass out to fill it up with water. He grabbed a bottle of some pills and turned to give them both to her.

"Here's some, naproxen. For the pain." He said. "You can probably take some more in the morning."

She took the pills out of his hand and the glass and immediately took them down.

He went over to her, and cupped her chin in his hand and wiped a tear away with his thumb and kissed her forehead before stepping back. "We should…probably try and get some sleep." He mentioned.

She grabbed his forearm, determined to finish what she had meant to accomplish. "Leo,"

He turned back to face her. "Even through our toughest times, you have always been the one who has been there and there has been no one else like you in my life. Whatever happens in the future, just know that, I…" A small pause came, "I love you."

Leo stared at her, a bit stunned, not knowing how to react to her sudden confession. But then he went over and grabbed her knuckle and kissed it and then crashed his lips into hers and she plunged her tongue into his mouth. He finally broke away and he said, "I…" About to say he loved her too.

But she put her finger up to his lips. "Shhh….I know." He didn't need to say it. He had demonstrated it over and over throughout the years with his actions. He had shown her the truth about her past and that the Shredder was not her father. He had Donnie create the retro mutagen for her, helped her regain her mind after the Shredder implanted the worm into her head. All of their secret meetings, and rescuing her from the confines of the Shredder. She also knew that he wanted her. With the way he looked at her, with longing eyes and lingering touches even when it wasn't necessary. Even when they were sparring, there was always undeniable chemistry.


End file.
